conundrum: [16] Conundrum originally appeared in all manner of weird and wonderful guises – conimbrum, conuncrum, quonundrum, connunder, etc – before settling down to conundrum in the late 18th century. It bears all the marks of one of the rather heavy-handed quasi-Latin joke words beloved of scholars in the 16th and 17th centuries, and a mid-17thcentury commentator attributed it to Oxford university. At first it meant ‘whim’ and then ‘pun’; the current sense ‘puzzling problem’ did not develop until the end of the 18th century.
conundrum (n.)
1590s, Oxford University slang for "pedant," also "whim," etc., later (1790) "riddle, puzzle." Also spelled quonundrum. The sort of ponderous pseudo-Latin word that was once the height of humor in learned circles.
雙語例句
1. Scientists had focused on two explanations to solve this conundrum.
科學家已鎖定兩種解釋來解開這個難題。
來自辭典例句
2. Interaction designers often face the conundrum of whether to make their products user - customizable.
交互設計者經常面臨這樣的難題,即是否讓他們的產品具有用戶定制功能.
來自About Face 3交互設計精髓
3. What I said was that there was some interest at Conundrum.
我說的是迷題出版社的人表示有興趣.
來自電影對白
4. Many people -- too many to count -- share your career conundrum.
許多人 -- 多的數不過來 - 有著和你一樣的職業難題.
來自互聯網
5. Let me give you some history about a conundrum.